Excerpts from The War
of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies

By an act approved June 23,
1874, Congress made an appropriation "to enable the Secretary of
War to begin the publication of the Official Records of the War of the
Rebellion, both of the Union and Confederate Armies," and
directed him "to have copied for the Public Printer all reports,
letters, telegrams, and general orders not heretofore copied or printed,
and properly arranged in chronological order."

Appropriations for continuing
such preparation have been made from time to time, and the act approved
June 16, 1880, has provided "for the printing and binding, under
direction of the Secretary of War, of 10,000 copies of a compilation of
the Official Records (Union and Confederate) of the War of the Rebellion,
so far as the same may be ready for publication, during the fiscal
year"; and that "of said number, 7,000 copies shall be
for the use of the House of Representatives, 2,000 copies for the use of
the Senate, and 1,000 copies for the use of the Executive
Departments."

Excerpts from the Preface, The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union
and Confederate Armies, by Robert N. Scott, Major, Third Art., and Bvt.
Lieut. Col.. War Department, August 23, 1880.